The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-20
TOBUILD HISOWN FUTURE
WHAT HON c. H. J. TAYLOR
WANTS THE NEGRO TO DO.

BILE Career of the Iiberian Minister.
Hon Charles H. j. Taylor, United States
Minister, resident, and Consul General at
Monrovia, Liberia, and Barrister in the
United States Supreme Court, is in the city,
having come here to begin work to which
he means to devote all his energies for the
remainder of his life. He is negro and
his career is a remarkable one He started
in life as slave, but has risen to q high
position, in which he is respected by all who
know him. He will, in the future, occupy
his time exclusively in the work
of elevating his race. He is by
far the most advanced man of
his race and he dubs himself ''the champion
of a new idea" He became so prominent
by his appointlnent to the Ministry of Libe-
ria that sketch of his life will not be out
of place, particularly as he lived in Savan-
nah for some years.
He was born in Marion, Perry county,
Alabama, in 1885, slave. At the close of
the war he detained his freedom, but he re-
manned at his oil home where his parents
staid until 1868, when he came to Savan-
nah He began here as newsboy, selling
the MORNING NEWS, or as it was styled
then, the News and Herald,
and he was soon recognized
as the most successful of all
newsboys. He sold more papers than any
other boy, running as high as us to 200 a
day He left here in 1871 and went to Ann
Arbor, Mich. He had saved his money,
and he continued to do so while there He
worked i'll the day, and attended school at
night. Finally he prepared himself for col
lege, and by that time he had accumulated
money enough to pay the expenses of his
education.
BECOMES A LAWYER.
He took three years course at
the University and graduated in law.
From there he went to Ma
practice of law. Two months after he set
tied in the town he obtained a case, defend
ing white man who was charged with
murder, and his defen e was so able and his
speech so eloquent that Charles W. Watkins,
the District Attorney, appointed him his
deputy. After living in Marion for while
he found that the negroes who acquired
money and education invariably
deserted their own race and
courted the whites, and he was so dis
gllsted with their conduct in despising
their own people as soon as they rose above
them, instead of going among them and
trying to raise them to their own level that
he left Marion and went to Kansas CITY,
where there were numbers of negroes, and
posed only one-sixth of the population of
Kansas City, but Taylors excellent charac-
ter and ability made him so popular with the
white people that he was appointed CITY
Prosecuting Attorney. which position he
held until he was appointed to the Liberian
mission. At oit time, when there was a
vacancy on the bench of the district COM
posed of 10 lnson, Wyandotte and Miami
counties, he was run as an independent
candidate for the judgeship. and he came
within few votes of being elected. When
he offered himself as a candidate for the
Lberian mission, his cause was strongly adj
veeated by DR.. Morrison Mumford, of the
Kansas City Times, and his strongest
friends in the Senate were Senators Wade
Hampton, of South Carolina and Senator
Cockrell, of Missouri, though Senators
Vest. of Missouri, Brown and Colquitt, of
Georgia, and Daniels, of Virginia, worked
hard for him, and every Democratic Sena-
tor on the floor voted for him
WHY HE RESIGNED HIS MISSION.
The reason which he gives for resigning
his mission is that the climate of Liberia is
SO exceedingly unhealthy, and because he
thinks he can do more good for his people
by coming back to this country than by re-
manning in Africa.
The ex-Minister was seen last night for
the purpose of obtaining his views on the
attract attention anywhere. He is short in
stature and stoutly built. He is a dark
mulatto and wears a moustache and i'm
perial, His eye is bright and he shows his
intelligence in his face. He is nervous
speaker and grows very enthusiastic when
he speaks of the question which is an all
absorbing one to him. He hmps slightly
and he says that every time he limps he
shows his fealty to the Democratic party,
for he was shot in the leg in 1876 by some
negroes in South Carolina, when he was
working against the Chamberlain dynasty.
He dresses plainly but neatly, but he can
afford to dress well, for he is worth over
$4,000. He says that his rule has been
whenever he made 81 to save soc. of it, and
If he wanted anything and could not get it
without spending part of that so, he would
go without 1T. In introducing the subject
of the future of the negro he was asked:
TO what special reform will you, as col
ored man, devote yourself?"
II beg your pardon" he replied, "but
am not colored man | am negro. |
object to the term colored man. 1t is
apologetic i'll the first place and incorrect in
the second. 1t implies that we are ashamed
of our name. We are not. 1t is true that
the negroes always call another niger
as a term of contempt Those who do so
are the uneducated, and they must be
taught better. There is nothing contempttl-
way in the world, educate ourselves and ac-
quire wealth, we will be just as much re-
spected when called negroes as if we are
called by any other name. 1t is we and not
our name who make ourselves respected or
despised. Besides negro is our national
name-I do not care whether you spell it
with a big or little n-jnst as Irish is the
name of those who come from Ireland
NEGRO, NOT coLoRED MAN.
at is incorrect for two reasons Black is
not color, and therefore the black man
cannot be colored man. When you say
colored man it seems as if you implied that
some one had come around with paint pot
and brush and colored us. 1t is not so. We
were born black No. l detest the term
colored man. | want the national name.
But as to the future of the negroes. My
aim and object in seeking to make myself
distinguished is to reach position to make
them listen to me. ! am only 81 years old,
the youngest man in the diplomatic service,
and my people will not pay any atten-
ton to a man, particularly a young
man, unless he is known and
to certain extent distinguished. They
want negro TO be backed by the white
people before they will hear him | have
placed myself in that position, and now |
have resigned to go back among them, and
help them to rise The doctrines that | will
teach them, is to abominate miscegenation
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